Bill English accepts Goff report but PM runs NZ's 'most transparent government'

Finance Minister Bill English. Photo / Getty Images

Deputy Prime Minister Bill English says while he accepts the Inspector-General's report into former Labour leader Phil Goff and the SIS, there is nothing unusual with journalists and politicians talking with each other.

He told TV3's The Nation this morning that Prime Minister John Key ran the "most transparent government that New Zealand's ever seen".

Inspector General of Security Intelligence Cheryl Gwyn's report this week found primarily that former SIS director Warren Tucker was at fault for supplying "misleading" information about Mr Goff to the Prime Minister during a 2011 war of words between the pair.

Mr Goff said he had not been briefed by Dr Tucker about suspected Israeli agents in Christchurch at the time of the earthquakes earlier that year. However, based on the information supplied by Dr Tucker, Mr Key said he had been briefed.

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The report found Mr Key's former senior communications adviser Jason Ede helped attack blogger Cameron Slater obtain that information from the SIS which Slater then used to embarrass Mr Goff in blog posts.

Mr English said the report wasn't of great concern to him.

"There was nothing there that wasn't a lot of the normal business of politics ... just like Phil Goff leaking the contents of a report was part of the business of politics. John Key runs a very transparent, open government."

He said he believed it wouldn't tarnish the Prime Minister's reputation with the public. "All these issues were hashed over in great detail before the election and it's all happening again."

Journalist Nicky Hager wrote about the information given to Slater in his book Dirty Politics.

He was labelled a "left-wing conspiracy theorist" by National after the book was published.

Mr English said he didn't believe Hager was owed an apology.

"If Nicky Hager is horrified that journalists and bloggers talk to politicians and political staff about politics, then he lives on a different planet than everyone who's done politics for a hundred years.